Tarren the Dungeon Master's page

I figure you are all about the mid-section near these pits with bodies in them?

You hear a low rumbling grunting noise from further down the shaft.

So is Jinx going down the passage or back to the entrance? He finds nothing new at the entrance but the smell of rotting entrails is pretty overwhelming.

Re: "you can't find more about them or search them". I meant to say, "you can't find more about them or search them from without descending".

You find no traps around this area. The injuries on the more recent bodies look similar to those of the bodies closer to the entrance. The bodies are in the pit, so you can't find more about them or search them. They appear to be some of the slaves.

Not yet. So we have a 30' hallway with a 10' path elevated down the center and 30' deep, 10' wide trenches on either side, about right?

I'm having trouble describing it. The hallway you are in has two open sections on either side at this point where the floor becomes a bridge for a short span. There are a bunch of skeletons and some more recent bodies lying at the bottom.

"'s unusual. Ah don' like unusual much 'n a delve. See if'n ye c'n fin' a secret door 'r mechanism 'ere, lad. Ah 'ave a suspicion."

Perception 1d20 + 14 including the dwarven bonus for stonework

If he can get Sykala's attention, he will try to signal to her that he wants her to look under the path and in the trenches.

Korian:

You find nothing in the way of traps, but the marks on the floor suggest the bodies where dragged from nearer to the entrance and then thrown down here. They weren't killed at this point. They were disposed of here.

Before you reach the second group of bodies, you pass an area in which the walls widen from 10 ft. to 30 ft. The floor remains only 10 ft. wide, bridging this gap. The drop on either side is 30 or so feet deep. You can see bodies lying on the sand. Some are very new; some not much more than dust themselves.

Do you continue down to the bodies in the hall?

What, for talking to Esteban you mean? Wasn't sure if a roll was needed cuz he was only kinda bluffing. But sure, here it is. Bluff: 1d20 (why in the world did I never but ranks into that??).

I assumed that Korian would know bestow curse was a touch spell, not a spell that could be attuned to someone and cast at a distance, but if he does not, than he was not bluffing. In any case, Esteban treated it as a teasing jest.

Korian takes in the bodies and the smell stoically. He waits to see if the others have anything to report, and if not, continues moving on with Ovirid, lending his aid to help the Dwarf search for traps.

Not sure how you want us to handle perception rolls Tarren? But as we are moving very carefully, it makes sense to me that you just roll as many as are needed for us, and let us know of the results, if any.

I will make any PASSIVE perception checks to see if you see things that you aren't looking for. You guys can make any ACTIVE perception checks, when you are looking for things.

Ovirid nears the bodies without finding a trap. The stench is unbearable even to a seasoned delver. Whatever killed these men left little inside that could be outside. The heat has made it worse and nothing has come along to eat it.

These were clearly slaves. Probably the ones sent in yesterday. Three of them at least.

Korian, if you are going to bluff, make a bluff check.

You cautiously peer in the entrance. The sand that pressed in all around the entrance fills the first 20 ft. or so, allowing you to crawl in, but after 10 ft. you would be able to stand. By 20 ft., you would have very little sand under your feet.

The passage slopes down very slightly.

You see three bodies within 30 ft. to the entrance. They are whole, but crushed in the middle so badly that they are almost split in two. Their stomachs are ruptured and their internal organs have burst out.

Much further down, you see more bodies but you cannot tell from this distance whether they are alive or dead and what kind of injuries they suffered.

Thanks for the review, Dark Mistress.

Esteban guides the ship back to the dig site. He points out to you that the seedpod is a bit of a slow moving mode of transportation for short trips like this--it turns poorly and requires wide circles to turn around. If you just ignore him, he'll get you there eventually.

You are over the dig site. You can easily climb down to ground level.

The entrance was widened a bit last night. There's still sand at the entrance but it is cleared enough that you can enter.

"I'm not going it to the pyramid. That's understood right? I just fly, drive, or sail. I don't delve. We know that, right?"

Esteban grins foolishly at Korian's discomfort then suddenly frowns, "You know I'M not going in, right? I mean, ... the ship needs me!"

Khymrasa laughs a little cruelly. "Hoffenburrow," she says, "knows less about pyramids than you do! He's a glorified gardener. I will tell you this though--I know nothing about cursed runes guarding this pyramid. No one does. After this pyramid was built, the slaves who built it were slain. Then, the soldiers who slew them were slain. I have no doubt the pyramid has its secrets, but you'll only find out what those are if you go inside. And, if you do not go inside soon, you will have broken our agreement."

With that, she returns inside her palanquin.

"Hoffenburrow sleeps," smiles Khymrasa. "We had a very long night, which only ended when he begged me to let him rest. Now, if you have questions for me ask them."

The seedpod floats over to the encampment. It's pretty quiet there. You can recognize by now the palanquin that belongs to Khymrasa and Esteban steers the ship towards it. Khymrasa steps out of the palanquin and says, "You continue to delay? We had an agreement that you would enter this morning."

Esteban brings the seedpod over the pryamid. The rival group has left it to you and are far from it back at their encampment. Although there are a few dead bodies, you see no living beings around the dig site.

I'm letting you guys take the lead here. Other than the weather and the position of the sun, I have nothing to report.

Okay.

The night passes without interruption. The swaying of the seedpod is no worse than the rocking of a ship at sea and it maintains its temperature quite well.

As the sun rises, the clay golems do not return to the dig site, nor do the slave masters and the handful of still sane slaves. Those mad slaves that were lying on the ground around the dig site have mostly disappeared.

Your actions?

I have considered removing Neil's ability to use the spoiler tag, because I think his walls of text do not deserve to be hidden. Philistines can scroll on by.

Remove his 'Spoiler' tag ability and replace it with a 'Portal' tag that transports his posts to random spaces on the Internet. ;-)

So, are we ready to go in?

"By 'you lot' I mean the lot of you," says Esteban agreeably before continuing to attend to the airship.

Smiling to himself slightly at Esteban's discomfort, Korian will follow him until he heads back into the ship. After a little while of watching the man work he says "Esteban, I believe we understand each other. You are motivated by profit, this is the central tenet of your life. Despite the fact that you have betrayed us several times in the past, and therefore deserve to die, I am motivated to let you keep that life as long as you keep proving to be of some use to us. And so I offer you a proposition that will give you both things you love, your life, and a great deal of profit. Hoffenburrow is likely lost to us. He is bewitched by Khymsara, and not just by her womanly charms, I mean magically, for the sake of his being a fellow Society member I shall try and rescue him if we can, but I don't she will give him up while she still has use of him, and once she doesn't, she'll likely kill him. If we are not able to rescue him, that will mean that this amazing flying ship will no longer have an owner...if you catch my drift?" Korian pauses for a moment to let his insinuation set in before continuing

"Seeing as you lot sunk my last ship and then ruined my chances of getting Julistar's help in retrieving the gold you sunk in it, that's the least you can do," nods Esteban in agreement.

"In addition, the treasures contained in this pyramid will far outshine those ever found in any pyramid, ever. Any someone willing to help us get safely in, and out of the pyramid, the rewards will be...significant. Very significant. So. All you need to do is tell me everything you know, everything about this pyramid. Everything Hoffenburrow may have told you, everything you may have over-heard. Show us any notes or possessions he may have aboard this ship. Anything and everything you can think of that will help us. And then you have to stick around and somehow keep this ship out of the hands of the Paracount should he arrive before we depart. Easy enough no? Little effort for great reward, should be right up your alley. What do you say?"

"Hoffenburrow told me very little about this pyramid. I do, however, know more than I need to about the importance of worms in aerating soil, the roll of elephant dung in distributing seeds across dry plains, and 17 uses Mwanggi make of banana leaves," replies Esteban. "He did tell me that the Sand Sage has his own reasons for being here. The Society believes he has been searching for another countdown device like the one we found in the last pyramid. Perhaps that's why Julistar is coming!"

While Esteban is freaked out at Korian following him around, he spends his time checking the ropes, checking the flags that show wind direction, and other routine things.

Oh, I just meant that Esteban tries to exit the hold where your standing and check on the rest of the ship.

Korian, however, thinks Esteban is lying. Everyone else thinks he's sincere.

Esteban, who was about to exit, stops himself and turns to Korian. "No," he says, "I have not spoken to the Paracount since I left him with you in the Pathfinder Lodge."

He seems sincere.

Esteban looks a little sheepish. "No, I mean ... not until I heard you discussing it. I'd better check on the winds."

Refina knows this is not the same pyramid, right? Both did connect with the four pharaohs.

Well, I'm not sure there's anything you need to do about the development in the camp. They've gone back to where they usually hang out. No biggie. You guys are supposed to enter the tombs the next morning. Get your spell lists ready.

I had to look in the adventure. You get nothing for those. Whatever is happening here is not in the history books. (Of course, you know that infernal suggests whatever is behind the voice goes on Demi-God Atnas's naughty list.

** spoiler omitted **

All hear a strange voice speaking a horrid tongue. The voice comes from inside your head but all react to it.

Infernal speakers:

The voice says, "37 .. 36 ... 35 ...34 ... 33 ... 32 ... 31 ... 30 ...29 ... 28"

Sykala finds the ship to be grown, not made, but of a form of plant she's never seen before. It is obviously a seedpod. The parts of the plant that separated and contained the seeds have been shaved down and turned into supports for the bulkheads. Much of the material is natural in origin, but tends to be extremely light. Wood is rare with silk or paper being more common. There is not much privacy in this ship.

Ovirid find that there is no system that keeps the ship in the air. It simply is. Fins on the ship seem more designed to point it in a particular direction. The ship seems to always be attempting to move forward with only anchors to prevent it from happening. The challenge for Esteban isn't to get the ship to move but to get it to stop.

There's something still nagging at Refina but she can't put her finger on it. She's pretty sure that Exemplar Khymrasa's casual mention of the Paracount coming in a few weeks was carefully inserted into the conversation with the intention of seeming incidental. She knows Khymrasa's playing games and that that was one of the moves. She cannot immediately deduce the strategy behind it from Khymrasa's actions alone.

Esteban doesn't feel like moving a ship again after you've just anchored it down. You can see from here that they are moving away from the pyramid to the camp the nobles (Master Soan, Exemplar Khymrasa, and the Sand Sage) normally rest at. Their Asmodean Monk Enforcers have gone with them.

Jinx pokes his head out of the hole and stiffens. He sniffs a good bit more and then conveys to Korian that he smelled something, but it soon dissipated.

Esteban at first refuses to take a vessel that does not belong to him but is easily persuaded to move off some distance from the site but still visible to the site. He won't take if further than that as this is not his ship.

Later that day, there is some commotion at the camp. From this distance you can see that the palanquin golems and many people on foot have moved from the dig site to the area the nobles and those closest to them occupied before.

Jinx lets Korian know that he can't smell through the hull of the ship.

"Pure silk, and nothing underneath," he whispers loudly.

Esteban attempts his most formal of bows in the Taldoran fashion, but it looks somewhat silly in these Vurdran robes he's borrowed from Hoffenburrow.

Oh, well, if the party is retiring to the Seedscatterer then Master Soan steps slowly back and allows Ovirid to take his weapon and leave.

Refina can tell that he was under some kind of enchantment. Beyond that, she can't be certain.

Esteban nods graciously to Refina saying to the others, "You haven't even told this lovely young about me after all we've been through together?"

Knowledge(history-Pharoahs): 1d20+19

While making is way towards the ship to rendezvous with the others Korian whispers again "What! The Paracount! That fiend! What is he doing out of captivity! I had hoped he would be rotting away in a dank prison for the rest of his life. We shall have to move even faster than I thought if he is on the way. On the other hand, if he does arrive in time, at least I'll have the oppourtunity to not make the mistake of leaving him alive this time. On another note, Refina, try and get Hoffenburrow to come with us. Maybe state there's some secret Pathfinder business or maybe that Estaban was thinking of stealing the ship and we need his advice on what to do with him. Say whatever you think will work, but maybe if we can get him out from under her influence we can get him back to himself."

Korian's Arch Nemesis! Whee!

If he does make it to the ship and hears Skyala's remark he answers her in Elvish and then again in Common for the others "You are very right Sykala, we shall have to think of a clever way to avoid the curse if we can. Perhaps mirrors? Perhaps summonings? I shall put my mind to it..."

Tarren, would Korian know if using mirrors would have any effect on the magic/curse of Runes?

Didn't Korian request that the Paracount be stuck on an outbound ship prior to his departure from Sothis, after Cheliax pointed out to the Society that Julistar hadn't violated Osirion laws? If you left him in Sothis, he can be there sooner. You guys can get to the ship via a rope ladder. Korian doesn't know much about the use of mirrors and the runes as he did no research on it.

Esteban usually anchors the ship to something. There are anchors to drop. It remains afloat without consuming energy, so Hoffenburrow never has him land it.

The Exemplar seems miffed that you won't be entering until morning, but grudgingly accepts.

Hoffenburrow bursts with energy saying, "Well, it is actually a very exciting site! At the same time as Ahn'Selota--the Osirion name for this site--was being built and nearing completion, the Pharaoh of Numbers requested tokens of devotion and affection from the governors of various provinces of Old Osirion. One sent the fingers of some exiled traitors hiding in his province. Another sent a pair of timeless servants. A third sent seeds preserved against the passing of time. Apparently this treasure was not appreciated at the time, as that governor was later removed from power, but think of it, fingers and servants are easy to come by now! What foresight did that governor have to bury seeds of species not seen on Golarion in thousands of years."

Seeing that this does not excite you as much as it does him, he turns to Khymrasa, and suggests, "Perhaps that Paracount from whom you requested reinforcements could provide more information."

Khymrasa glares at him and then says, "Well, it will take a couple of weeks for them to arrive. I don't believe our friends want to wait that long."

They did send 10 slaves in. No one came out.

I guess the story should continue with Refina ...

Exemplar Khymrasa gestures toward the world outside the palanquin saying, "I hope you will be ready to begin as soon as possible. Frankly, you've killed some of my people. It would be easier for their colleagues if you were out of sight."

Esteban answers, "Oh, Hoffenburrow said from the time I met him that he was coming to negotiate access to a dig site. He didn't really let me in on the details. Not that I asked. I was more interested in the vessel. And THAT he's very secretive about."

Master Soan allows Ovirid to pick up his shield but does not respond to Ovirid's witty banter.

The message spell is not the same as clairaudience, so, without looking at the spell text, I would say she has to pass the message along.

The bat is a dot on the horizon at this point. Traveling at full speed for a few rounds, it has gotten small quite quickly.

Esteban smiles as if Ixius made a joke and adjusts the sand bags to cause the seedpod to circle.

Esteban smiles as if Ixius made a joke and adjusts the sand bags to cause the seedpod to circle.

Ixius can see what's happening below. Other than having an aerial view, Ixius is not seeing anything else happening.